A collection from the trip overall, including Tokyo, Wales, England and Paris can be found here:

2009 – Japan + UK Trip

A small selection of photos from the 2009 F1 in Schools World Championships, including pictures of a few of the team booths, can be found here:

F1 in Schools – 2009

The complete collection of my photography so far can also be found here:

Flickr – Kincuri

Related posts:

1. PARIS! Part 1
2. British Museum, London Eye and Time Team!
3. A picture update

I’ll dedicate this first post to the pics of Paris I took.

The city of Paris from the Top of the Arc de Triomphe

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The Eiffel tower, during the day and at night.

Notre Dame Cathedral

The Louvre

The Rose Line aka the Paris Meridian

and… the Arc de Triomphe itself!

Related posts:

1. PARIS! Part 2
2. The end of a journey
3. British Museum, London Eye and Time Team!

I was lucky enough to make it to three London musicals, namely The Lion King, Billy Elliot and Oliver! Each of which was fantastic, whilst showing three unique styles of theatre.

The first show we saw, The Lion King, was the one we had purposely picked out as the one we had to see if by chance we were only able to make it to one. Whilst I don’t think I ever watched the Lion King film completely from start to finish, the play almost followed the film script and soundtrack verbatim in parts. The costumes were very innovative, with the performers integrated into the animals they were portraying almost seamlessly.

The style of dance in Billy Elliot was much similar to that in the Lion King, very precise, more concerned with getting even the littlest of movements right. The acting was what you would expect from a drama, matching the original film performance. It was much more intense than either the Lion King or Oliver, particularly towards the close of the first Act when riot police took the stage. It was very powerful.

[Edit: Having watched the film  version of Billy Elliot on the plane from London to Tokyo, I am lead to conclude that the play was much better, in terms of delivering the plot and the power of the performances from the actors and dancers, Billy Elliot the stage musical is much an improvement on the film. Un-needed side-plots were ignored and the side stories that had a real emotional effect, such as Billy’s visions of his mother were emphasised].

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Both Billy Elliot and the Lion King worked well with the space they had on the stage, whilst I think they both had a lot of area to work with, it always felt like they were close to the audience. However, that is where Oliver differed. Oliver had a huge, deep stage, which they filled with a huge number of actors and dancers. Where Billy Elliot and the Lion King may have had a maximum of 20 or so actors/dancers on stage at any one time, Oliver would have had what seemed like 50+ at some points, on a stage setup like a massive streetscape.

All three of the plays used an amazing variety of sets and settings, the choreography of the set changes was almost impressive as the actors themselves.

I can’t see how anyone could ever be bored in London, regardless of all the touristy sights around the city, there are so many high quality theatrical shows, I think it would be impossible not to find something entertaining to do on any given night.

Related posts:

1. British Museum, London Eye and Time Team!
2. Tate Modern + Shakespeare's Globe Theatre
3. London 2.0

Today started in Paris, up at 6 am (Paris time) to walk down to the train station to see of my Dad and my Brother onto a train to Zurich, where they will spend about a week before heading home themselves. After that I headed to my own train, a Eurostar trip back to London. From there, I made my way on the Tube to Heathrow, arriving about 12.30 pm for my 4.30 pm flight.

Night passed during the flight, however I didn’t get much sleep due to the couple sitting next to me. I was lucky enough to get a seat behind the emergency exit, which gifts you the privilege of as much leg room as you would need, in return for being personally responsible for the safe evacuation of our section of the plane. A responsibility worth bearing. But with a British couple with no sense of respect for the cabin crew or the personal space of others, it was hard to rest during the flight. Throughout I constantly poked, prodded and bumped during the flight by the bloke sitting next to me, who had decided that his own seat didn’t provide enough room in itself, that he needed to spread himself into the seats next to him. Worst of all was their willingness to just throw their used food trays and rubbish onto the floor for the flight staff to pick up, but the same staff were whinged about privately when their English wasn’t sufficient (we were on Japan Airlines so I think they really should have given the flight crew a break …).

I’ve been upgraded to Premium Economy for the flight to Sydney, just through asking. Despite complaints about passengers, which can’t be held against them, I have really enjoyed flying with Japan Airlines. Service on par with Qantas at no where near the price.

It’s now about 5.30pm in Tokyo (Tokyo time, about 9 hours ahead), with my flight leaving around 8.30pm. I’m so desperate for sleep, but am hesitant to do it in the terminal out of fear of missing my flight. I’ve been in the airport since 12.30 and am bitterly disappointed that I wasn’t able to find a PS3 slim in the duty free shops (Wii’s and DS’s are in supply funnily enough…).

You may be able to tell that I’m just a little bit grumpy, but at least I’ll be home soon, to kick off another day by landing in Canberra at 9.30 am. Hopefully I’ll get decent sleep between Tokyo and Sydney. I feel like I’m doing a rewind of a month long trip, crammed into a period of 36 hours, with all the fun parts taken out.

I’ll eventually update on my time in Paris when I get the pics sorted out.

Related posts:

1. PARIS! Part 2
2. Pictures
3. Harajuku

My brother in one of the red phone boxes that are scattered around London. I don’t quite understand the tourist fascination with these. As far as I’m aware, there’s only one last TARDIS, but these are everywhere!

A sneaked shot from within Australia House, home of the Australian Consulate, where the Australian F1 in Schools teams were invited for breakfast. This hall, of course, was used as the set for Gringotts bank in Harry Potter. Apparently shooting for the Potter film took six weeks, for a scene that lasted just a few minutes.

Buckingham Palace and the changing of the guard. I was a little under whelmed by the changing of the guard, with so many people turning out to watch, with the police having to close off the street during the ceremony, there wasn’t much to it. The guards with band march in and enter the palace grounds. Music is played for about 20 minutes whilst the actual changing takes place, and then they march out again. It really was hard to see what was going on as the ceremony is effectively shielded by the palace gates. Unless you are standing right up against the gates, you really can’t see much.

Behind the palace is Hyde Park and Hyde Park corner where the Australian War memorial in London is. The memorial consists of a wall with every town and city from which people who have served for the Australian defence forces has come from (Australian towns or otherwise). Canberra, Tuggeranong and Nimmitabel all make appearances! Nimmitabel was a little hard to find, after about 30 minutes of searching, we discovered that it was in fact around the back of the wall where two panels had been hidden.

Harrods! Same feeling in Harrods as you get when visiting a museum. Everything is beautiful to look at, but you know its all too valuable to take home. The prices are just as much a spectacle as the items themselves (examples being 35 Pounds for a dozen oysters and a 95,000 Pound chandelier!)

Related posts:

1. Westminster and TARDIS – Part 2
2. Forgive and Forget…
3. London 2.0

The British Museum has an amazing collection of important historical artefacts, serving not as a museum for British history, but more as an example of world history, with exhibitions dedicated to ancient Egypt, Africa, Asia and the Americas (disappointingly, Australia seems to be missing, but I suppose modern Australian history is relatively young, plus its not why I went to the museum in the first place, but it would have been nice to see us included).

A trip on the London eye was a fantastic experience, just like St. Pauls Cathedral, it provides a fantastic perspective of the city. The ever changing view allows you to take in different parts of the city and towards the end, provides probably the greatest views of the Westminster area, with the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben and the Abbey, from anywhere in the city.

With what must be an amazing coincidence of timing, for the last few days, there has been excavation working occurring on the grounds of Westminster Abbey. It was a little hidden at first, as the whole strip from Victoria station, to Westminster and up to Trafalgar Square is undergoing maintenance works (in anticipation for the 2012 Olympics, I think). Walking past we discovered that it is a excavation for the show Time Team! They are digging up the early foundations of the Abbey for an episode of the show to air early next year. All of the shows ‘stars’ were also on site!

I simply cannot believe the amount of luck that I have had during this trip. Things that would be notable sights on any given day, I’ve discovered out of chance by just walking around where ever I am. Be it Time Team at the Abbey or the Buddhist Temple in Tokyo, the number of things I have discovered without prior planning has been amazing.

Related posts:

1. A flurry of updates
2. Westminster and TARDIS – Part 1
3. Westminster and TARDIS – Part 2

I was lucky to be able to jump off the train and walk down to where my accommodation is (right on the River Taff!). The apartment is part of a newly finished development just down from Cardiff Bay, so it’s brand new, fully furnished, and makes for a pleasant change from the student accommodation I had in London (I have my own bathroom and kitchen…)

The view from my apartment

I headed down to Cardiff Bay for dinner, fish and chips again (the meal I think I’ve eaten the most since getting into the UK, all of which have been very good). Taking in some of the Doctor Who/Torchwood sights whilst I was there

Torchwood seems to have taken on a new image, with the water tower donning a strawberry theme.

I had almost forgotten that there was supposed to be a local Rugby match in Cardiff last night! It was pretty good timing, as it was the first game of the season, as well as the first game for the Cardiff Blues at the brand new Cardiff City Stadium, which has around the same capacity, and eventual crowd (around 8,500) as Canberra Stadium. Being more enclosed than Canberra, the crowd came across much louder (and very passionate!) compared to a Raiders match.

It was an exciting match too, with Cardiff only just losing out to Edinburgh by 1 point (22 to 21). The Blues had been trailing by 6 points for most of the second half, but managed to score a try with about 3 minutes to go, but unfortunately missed the conversion.

Similar to the signs around the town, all of the match announcements were made in Welch before being said again in English. Its nice to see that the local language is still being supported.

About to head out to see the Doctor Who exhibition at the Red Dragon centre this morning. In preparation, and for education, I thought I should try marmite for breakfast this morning. Despite it smelling horrible compared to Vegemite, and having a consistency similar to honey, happily it didn’t taste too drastically different from vegemite.

Related posts:

1. Westminster and TARDIS – Part 2
2. London Theatre
3. First Post: Concentrate and make it poignant

After leaving Westminster Abbey, I sort of made a loop around the Westminster area, which is very nice! (I saw my first Aston Martin DB9 parked in one of the streets). Definitely looking forward to staying near Pimlico, just a little south when I return to London.

I eventually made my why around to 10 Downing Street, which was a little disappointing as it is closed off to the public, with the building hidden away, I figure you’d probably see more of The Lodge in Canberra whilst driving past than you could see of the British PM’s residence.

About as good a view as is possible.

Continuing my walk around Westminster, I finally made my way down to Buckingham Palace, which was a little uneventful, as the changing of the guard ceremony had been cancelled for the day. Oh well, a good excuse to go back for another visit.

The grounds and gardens that surround the palace (especially St James’s Park) make for nice areas to walk whilst enjoying a view of the palace itself.

One thing I was amused to find was the Australian gate to the Palace forecourt (which I almost missed after actually entering the area through this gate, it was only after seeing the African and Canadian gates that I realised there would probably be an Aussie gate too). I thought it was funny that Australia was represented by a bloke with his arm around a kangaroo (there was a second with his arm around a sheep), as though that’s a normal thing for Aussies to do.

On the way back to Old Street, I decided to make a stop out to Earl’s Court where I knew there was only of the last remaining police boxes, aka a TARDIS! I attempted to have someone to take a pic of me with it, but I think she thought I wanted a pic of the pub behind it. Despite cropping the image, it didn’t turn out all that well, so I’ll have to make another visit once and make my brother take a better pic! It was also at this point that I realised I’ve left my Sonic Screwdriver at home…

I’ll leave my last picture from London for the time being as a shot of one of the Space Invader guys that appear around Old Street where I’m staying. It gives a pretty good indication of the kind of neighbour hood Old Street is. Kind of rough and basic, but being close to Shoreditch, the people are friendly, yet quirky, with lots of fashion/arts shops around the area. Its been a fun place to stay, but I’m looking forward to moving on to Cardiff and Wales tomorrow!

Related posts:

1. Westminster and TARDIS – Part 1
2. St. Paul’s Cathedral
3. London Explored

Harajuku appears to be a centre for youth fashion in general the streets in the surrounding areas were filled almost exclusively with clothing stores, drawing crowds comparable to Shibuya, despite the heavy rain that came through in the evening.

Practically boarding on to the train station were the grounds of the local Shinto Shine. Consisting of quiet a large nature reserve with the Shine, as well as a museum dedicated to artefacts belonging to the Imperial Family within.

Similar to the gate at the Asakusa Temple, the Shinto Gate was impressive. Normally are not to the scale of one at the main entrance to the Harajuku Shine (there were other, smaller gates around the grounds).

For 500 Yen you could buy a wooden slate to write prayers and wishes, seemingly popular with locals and tourists alike.

The grounds were remarkably dense with trees and undergrowth, there were also very few people actually walking the grounds after visiting the Shine. Besides the occasional sounds of trains passing by, you could easily forget that you were literally in the middle of Tokyo City.

One last shot of the Shinjuku station sign before I left for Narita Airport this morning. I enjoyed being able to use Shinjuku station, firstly because it services a huge number of people each day, with masses flowing in Shinjuku in the morning and away again in the evening, flowing between home and offices, I’m just a little proud of myself to know that I managed to conquer it. Secondly, because once you have conquered it, you realise that you can access almost any part of the city from this single station, with almost all others being a single transfer away.

A mix between my Lonely Planet city guide and an iPhone app which recommends a path to areas between stations meant that I was able to traverse the city without any major incidents. Looking forward to doing similar in London.

Related posts:

1. Roppongi and the Imperial Palace
2. The end of a journey
3. Asakusa and Sensō-ji Temple

This was the first Buddhist Temple that I have ventured into during the trip so fair and it made for an enjoyable change from the festival crowd. People made their way through the huge temple gate (seen below) and taking part in various rituals. (the main temple was unfortunately covered, so have no interesting pictures of the temple itself).

There were gardens neighbouring the temple, with a Koi pond and private prayer area. In the main square people were able to receive fortunes for different aspects of their lives, with the ‘bad’ fortunes left behind, tied to the racks in front of the temple.

Visitors were able to buy osenko incense bundles to burn, with the smoke believed to have a healing effect. People would bath themselves in the smoke (seen in the picture below, in front of the temple gate), washing all over themselves with the smoke. Prior to entering the temple to pray, it was also possible to visit a purification fountain, where people could wash their hands and face with water. As I said, this was the first time I had visited a Buddhist temple, let alone one of this size, so I found the whole process rather interesting. Everyone was calm, quiet and respectful for the temple and its visitors, such a change from the rest of Tokyo!

Going to head out to Harajuku tomorrow for my last full day in Tokyo before flying out for London early Monday morning.

Related posts:

1. Harajuku
2. Gundam and Shibuya
3. Roppongi and the Imperial Palace